The Trails Of Tiger...

Today, the endangered animals are on a priority list of the government and this must happen, they maintain the balance in our ecosystem. Here , we shall look into the movement pattern of one such animals – the Tigers. Tigers, in India , are mostly in two strongholds – the Western Ghats and the central India . They move to far distant places in search of mates and new territory. But their movement is affected by roughness of the terrain and the human population in the area. Central India is a densely populated area while Western Ghats are lesser denser and provide home to the world’s largest contiguous tiger population. The basic science tells that tigers moved across ridges and rough topography to avoid the presence of people.

This may seem strange to hear. We had developed a way to protect ourselves from the wild animals, this , we thought. But they too, try and know to keep out of our ways , seeing the increasing dominance of the humans. Study has been done on the collected samples of various species of tigers faeces from Western Ghats and various other terrains and a connection was tried to establish between the genetic data and the historical landscape of the Ghats and records were tried to maintain for land covered , land use category , using maps showing terrain and road network defining human presence and the change in vegetation cover. When the data of the two places were compared there was something unusual found. It revealed an interest pattern . The relationship between terrain and gene flow inverted in both the region. The genetic flow had a connection with rough terrain in central India while the genetics had a way with smooth terrain having few human disturbances in the Western Ghats.

If you rail a tiger, he will show you the claws.

One of the researchers said – the pattern was mainly due to differing level of human disturbances . Central India has more fragmented forests and higher human disturbances while the Ghats have large connected forests and lesser human population , allowing tiger locomotion across lower and smooth areas. This shows , nature is changing itself with the ways of human . Adaptation is the way of life is being forced upon Her and her dwellers . This might be another consequence of the undefined human behaviour. More is yet to come!!.